Northwestern Mutual announced it is giving $600,000 in grants over the next three years to help fund research for cancer cures and treatments.
The Milwaukee-based life insurance company is donating the money to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, an organization that funds research and provides support to childhood cancer families. The organization will award four, $150,000 grants through its Young Investigator program, which supports scientists in their careers who are working to find innovative and more effective therapies.
“These scientists are revolutionizing how we treat and care for children affected by cancer,” said Eric Christophersen, president of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation. “Only through better treatments and cures can we create a brighter future for thousands of kids and families across the U.S. We are proud to support this work and enable researchers to focus on their research, rather than how to fund it.”
The grant recipients include:
- Satoru Osuka, M.D./Ph.D. at Emory University in Atlanta, whose research explores new therapies to inhibit the metastasis of medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain tumor.
- Adam Durbin, M.D./Ph.D. at Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston, whose work focuses on disrupting protein networks that promote the growth of high-risk neuroblastoma.
- Zibo Zhao, Ph.D. at Northwestern University in Chicago, whose research will seek new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of mixed-lineage leukemia.
- Colin Godwin, M.D. at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, whose work focuses on improving immunotherapies (which engineer the body’s immune system to fight disease) for acute myeloid leukemia.
Northwestern Mutual is also sponsoring the sixth annual ALSF Young Investigator Summit, held in Milwaukee today and Tuesday, during which more than 60 young scientists will present their research. The company has supported the summit since its inception in 2012 and has funded 26 Young Investigator grants over the six years, totaling $3.3 million.
